A fifth-order reconnaissance soil map of ice-free areas of the Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica

• Main Authors: M. Mcleod, J. G. Bockheim, M. Balks
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Antarctic; Arctic; Shackleton; Shackleton Range; The Antarctic; Transantarctic Mountains; Victoria Land; Antarc*; Antarctica; Ice; permafrost
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.546.1198; http://pubs.usgs.gov/of/2007/1047/ea/of2007-1047ea116.pdf

Transantarctic Mountains, Antarctica from Northern Victoria Land to the Shackleton Range has been drafted with nearly 80 % of the area digitised and stored in a GIS. Currently, the soil map is useful at scales greater than 1:1 000 000. Soil map units have been classified to Subgroup level using the USDA Soil Taxonomy Gelisols Order and have also been given a relative confidence rating based on the amount of soil information available in the region. Soils in the relatively moist coastal areas of the Transantarctic mountains are dominated by Haplorthels as precipitation recharges soil moisture lost through evaporation and as a consequence ice-cemented permafrost occurs at a depth of <70 cm. In contrast, in drier inland areas ice-cemented permafrost is not recharged and depth to ice-cemented permafrost increases with age leading to Anhyorthels where depth to ice-cement exceeds 70 cm. Lithic Subgroups occur predominantly on steeper land or where high wind speed facilitates removal of shattered rock material. The electronic version of the map can be considered to be work in progress that can be updated whenever researchers have improved soil information covering a significant area. This reconnaissance soil map of the Transantarctic Mountains contributes to the aim of the Antarctic and Sub-Antarctic Permafrost, Soils and Periglacial Environments Group (ANTPAS) to produce an Antarctic-wide soil map similar to that of the Arctic region.